Milk—It Does a (Baby Cow’s) Body Good

Milk and most other dairy products are considered part of a vegetarian diet, but it’s a fine line. I stopped eating all meat except for seafood in October of 2006, and dropped seafood in October of 2009. Prior to becoming a vegetarian, I only ate raw foods for 30 days to curb my meat cravings, and more easily adapt to a vegetarian lifestyle.

My body feels best without any dairy products. The only reason that I still consume dairy products is because they taste good. Even though I don’t eat it daily, I love variety and flavor of cheese and the creamy, sweetness of ice cream. I don’t drink milk, but have justified my cheese and ice cream addictions, by only eating them “once in a while”.

I stopped drinking milk several years ago, when I started to understand that the purpose of cow’s milk is to promote growth. A baby cow goes from 90 pounds to 2000 pounds in less than 2 years. Trust me when I say, I do not want to consume anything that promotes growth.

I used to drink milk because…

I thought it was the best way to get calcium

It was inexpensive

It was convenient

I believed it would help me lose weight

I never considered the options

It’s not surprising if, like me, you thought milk was the only way to go. The National Dairy Council spent 190 million dollars on their Got Milk campaign to convince you that you need 3 glasses of milk a day to stay healthy. Those celebrities wearing milk mustaches are cute but they don’t tell you about the ugly side of milk and other dairy products.

Gotmilk.com tells you that drinking three glasses of milk a day may reduce your risk of bone disease and fractures. According to their study sourced, principal influences on bone mass are genetics, hormonal structure, mechanical loading and calcium intake. That means the only factor you have control over is calcium intake. They want you to believe that the best way to get calcium is by drinking milk, but there are better ways. Based on absorption, calorie for calorie, kale, bok choy and broccoli are all better sources of calcium than milk. Other veggies that contain high levels of calcium include kidney beans, black beans, arugula and spinach.

Interestingly enough, hip fractures and osteoporosis are much more common in populations with high dairy consumption. American women consume 32 times the amount of cows milk as women in New Guinea, but suffer 47 times the number of broken hips. (The China Study has a great chart on page 209 showing the association of rates of hip fractures with calcium intake for different countries.)

Top 6 Reasons to Drop the Dairy (Especially Milk)

Cruel to calves – Cows produce milk to nourish their young, but calves on dairy farms are taken away from their mothers when they are just 1 day old. They are fed milk substitutes (including cattle blood-ugh) so that their mothers’ milk can be sold to humans.

Cruel to cows – Cows have a natural lifespan of about 25 years and can produce milk for eight or nine years. However, the stress caused by the conditions on factory farms leads to disease, lameness, and reproductive problems that render cows worthless to the dairy industry by the time that they’re 4 or 5 years old, at which time they are sent to be slaughtered.

Cows are also fed unnatural, high-protein diets, which include dead chickens, pigs, and other animals, because their natural diet of grass would not provide the nutrients that they need to produce such massive amounts of milk.

Cruel to adults – A U.K. study showed that people who suffered from irregular heartbeats, asthma, headaches, fatigue, and digestive problems showed marked and often complete improvements in their health after cutting milk from their diets. This is especially true for people living with inflammatory conditions and auto-immune diseases.

Cruel to the earth – In California, America’s top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poisoned hundreds of square miles of groundwater, rivers, and streams. Each of the more than 1 million cows on the state’s dairy farms excretes 18 gallons of manure daily.

It’s just weird – Besides humans (and companion animals who are fed by humans), no species drinks milk beyond infancy or drinks the milk of another species.

If you are considering a vegetarian diet or dumping the dairy, I highly recommend reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, The Kind Dietby Alicia Silverstone and Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. There are many more great books, but these really made a difference in what I decided to put in my body.

If you’re not convinced, here are a few more reasons to give up dairy…

“When you consume dairy products, you are ingesting the same antibiotics, pesticides, steroids and hormones you would if you ate meat directly.”- The Skinny Bitch

Cows are milked by machine, metal clamps are attached to the cows’ sensitive udders. The udders become sore and infected. But the machines keep on milking, sucking the dead white blood cells into the milk” – Skinny Bitch

Records from the Food and Drug Administration show that “virtually 100% of the cheese products produced and sold in the U.S. has detectable pesticide residues.” – Skinny Bitch

Bonus challenge: Drop eggs too. Eggs are not technically dairy, but the incredible, edible egg is really just a chicken period, and that is kind of gross.

Here are a few of the perks you can expect from a dairy free diet:

weight loss

calm belly

better sleep

less anxiety

Please let me know if you are up for the challenge, and how long it takes to start feeling the results of a dairy free lifestyle. I’ll post challenge updates on Twitter and weigh in, literally, at the end of my 40 days and tell you how I did.

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Comments

GREAT post.
For years I have thought it was weird that we are the only mammals that drink milk past birth so a few months ago I started cutting out dairy and eggs. I have had amazing health results. I don’t keep or use these things in my house and surprisingly I don’t miss it too much. Which is a shocker since I love strong expensive cheese and ice cream. Very rarely I might have a small serving and over time I notice I crave those things less and less. We never drank much milk in our home growing up and neither of my parents or my brother or I have allergies or weight issues……maybe it’s connected? Who knows?

I want to do this soooo badly. My husband and I have, over the past few months, cut down on meat drastically, and as of a few days ago, completely… So, to give up dairy and egg really scares me…. How will I get enough calories?
I once went vegan for 2 months, and could not eat enough to stay at my then current weight… I started to become gross skinny… And I ate all the time!
How can I do this?

Welcome to the journey! Don’t think about this as giving up dairy and eggs. Think about this as adding new stuff, especially complex carbohydrates with whole grains and legumes in your daily meals. These are some of nature’s best source of healthy calories and proteins.

Try including brown rice (not white and enriched rice), barley, corn, millet, oats, and whole wheat (not enriched wheat). Try adding beans in your diet. Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet has a few neat tips on making beans less gassy. (The book as lots of great information for the novice, albeit as a warning to us guys it’s got a slight feminine touch. If you can look past “cute vegan boys” you’ll gain some great insight.)

Remember, working towards a vegan diet requires a couple of tasks- scientifically researching the most nutritious foods and constantly being on the prowl for the best tasting plant-based foods. Be sure to stay away from nutritionally deficient foods such as white bread, white rice, as well as foods that break down the body such as sugar, caffeine.

Wow, this post couldn’t have come at a better time for me! I’ve been slowly eliminating dairy products from my diet for the past two months, and have noticed that I feel so much better – I’m sleeping better, and my tummy isn’t gurgling uncomfortably all the time. So far I’ve kicked the milk habit, but after reading this post, I’m going to focus on cutting out cheese as well! Thanks for the added inspiration 🙂

Thank you for putting into words what I’ve long suspected and never fully defined (particularly: “I stopped drinking milk several years ago, when I started to understand that the purpose of cow’s milk is to promote growth”).

I’ve been a (lacto-ovo) vegetarian since I was 16 and found that since becoming vegan I’ve felt so much better. Initially this was a purely ethical choice, but after a few “slip-backs” into dairy here and there the difference in how I felt (and, let’s be vain for a moment, how my body looked) was drastic.

It’s nice when “sacrifices” in the name of ethics come with so many perks! 🙂

The first time someone said to me “cows milk is so that baby cows can grow to be 2000 pounds” was like pure logic hitting me in the face. I now consume some dairy products again (while I’m pregnant and struggling to gain weight and get protein) but in very low moderation. I’ve always had an allergic reaction to drinking milk so that’s never been a problem but it’s always good to remember the purpose of milk.

I would love to cut out dairy all together , but I am having difficulties finding other protein sources. If I cut out the dairy and soy (these days I have not heard great things about soy), then my only protein sources are beans, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. Any advice?

Regarding soy, most of the propaganda against it comes from the meat & dairy industry…Weston A Price comes to mind. One of the big arguments used to scare people is that it will render a couple infertile. However, this is easily disputed, as one can simply look at China’s population (big soy consumers) as scientific evidence that the opposite is true. I do believe that processed soy products such as TVP may not be the best for you, but that goes with any item that’s processed. Eg- Corn is great, but high fructose syrup is terrible.

My advice regarding your concern of having limited sources of protein, is to focus on exploring other ways of preparing and cooking your plants. Recently, I had Egyptian Kushari for the first time at Little Lad’s in NYC, which is made lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, and noodles…incredible combination.

Also, a common breakfast I eat includes vegan french toast. Blend cashews, hot water, vanilla, dash of salt, & coriander (first). Further blend with cold water, flour, olive oil, & flaxseed (second)….And you have amazing french toast batter. Use Ezekiel bread, and you’ll have some wonderful french toast.

Personally, I would not have been vegan if I was stuck to eating only salads and plain legumes. Thankfully, that’s not the case!

I make a mushroom burger patty by first frying mushrooms and onions in grapeseed oil, adding herbs, and pureeing in a cuisine art. Then I add some almond flour (which I make from drying almond pulp after making almond milk, but you can just grind raw almonds in a coffee/nut grinder and add them) I also add a bit of ground flaxseed to help hold it together. I use my hands to form the patties and bake them in the oven until hot and firm. They make great vegetarian burgers.

I’m totally up for the challenge! I’ve done a great job at cutting most of the meat and dairy out of my diet, but goat cheese gets me every time! I didn’t expect to feel so much better cutting dairy out, but I don’t feel as congested and I don’t break out as much! Thanks for the informative post!

Nancy – I would recommend working with a nutritionist or your doctor and figure out how much protein you really need. More often than not, we consume more protein than our bodies require.

Christine – I am starting to see more vegan options out there. Hopefully that trend will continue!

Diane – I can’t believe I missed that very obvious implication for so many years!

Jessica – There are some coconut ice creams that I like but some that I think taste funny. There are plenty of dairy substitutes out there, although good cheese is tough to replicate. I had high hopes for Daiya Cheese, but it’s not my fav. I need to try in a few recipes before I rule it out!

thanks all for your feedback, and Matt – Thanks for the opportunity to guest post on your awesome site!

Excellent post! I’ve been dairy free for years now, and it’s really done wonders for my quality of life. My allergies are a non-issue now! I also know that I won’t have to worry about osteoporosis and other milk-related ailments.

Great post! My wife has been saying all this for years, and you know what? She is right and You are right. Since I have cut out Milk and dairy, I feel, sleep and perform MUCH better. This just proves that so much of what Americans eat is determined by what big food producers tell us is good for us, and not what really is. Its all about selling and profit.
Meat and Dairy are NOT required for a healthy diet. Since I stopped eating animal products, I enjoy food so much more. All the true “healthy” foods start tasting better and better! I have received a lot of encouragement from the Bragg Health products, NoMeatAthlete, and also the book Thrive. Thanks again for a great post. Not a popular opinion, but very necessary:)

I looked at the book, but it appears to be one of those “We have the secret nobody will tell you” type books in which the main evidence comes from anecdotes… I’d love to see some primary research on this topic, though. I’ll have to do some searching on PubMed and see what I come up with.

Ugh, gross! Generally, I do not consume dairy because of what I think is a lactose issue, but recently, I have been finding myself tolerating it better and eating more. This is a reminder of why I really should just go back to not having any.

As for eggs, I feel similarly but have found it really hard to not eat them. But at least I can start with trying to henceforth bake without them and see how that goes.

Thanks for reminding me why I am an aspiring vegetarian in the first place.

Ananas- the most comprehensive book you could read about the affects of animal protein on humans is the book mentioned in this article, “The China Study”, by T. Colin Campbell.

I gave up dairy when I went vegan a few years ago, and stomach pains and nausea I was used to experiencing every day went away. I never put two and two together that I was lactose intolerant. The doctor just classified me as having IBS. I don’t miss dairy at all, especially after discovering almond and soy milks and coconut milk icecreams (num!).

I love this post. I stopped drinking milk when I became vegetarian for many of the above reasons, but still haven’t fully cut out cheese or ice cream.

And this post has finally convinced me to read the China Study, as so many others have recommended.

Speaking of books, I just read Michael Pollan’s Food Rules (post on that coming soon), and it makes so much intuitive sense but doesn’t promote full-on veganism or even vegetarianism. I’ll be interested to see what every thinks of it when I post about it.

Very informative post! Another argument against milk drinking is the fact that there’s no real evidence stating milk is good for one’s bones. Milk contains a lot of phosphorus which actually leaches calcium from the body.

Courtney, this is a great post! I recently wrote a post about my own “dairy dilemma” and I find what you said to be just more evidence that I’m making a good choice. I haven’t completely cut it out, but I don’t drink straight up cow’s milk anymore (coconut milk beverage is my new bff, as well as almond, hemp, rice, etc. milks). I’m having a tough time giving up yogurt because soy yogurt is so expensive, but I try to find a balance. I’m definitely cutting the cheese down, though! thanks for your insight and for helping to reinforce why I’m making these choices for my body.

Someone asked me why I was trying to cut down dairy and after a lot of explanation I finally said, “Have you ever seen a gorilla drink goat’s milk? Or a cow drink human milk?” We’re the only species that drinks another species’ milk — weird!

Thanks for the great article! I was so glad to see you referenced The China Study book by Campbell. My family stopped all fluid milk after I read his book. We minimize cheese as much as possible, and I would probably have a riot if we completely cut out ice cream. Also thanks to all who have commented, very informative references!

WOW! A ton of replies. I couldn’t read them all so sorry if this was mentioned… I have that dairy, especially parmesan cheese, is horrible for athletes as it increases lactic acid build up prematurely (burning in muscles). I gave up all dairy, meat, and eggs in spring of 2008. Since then, it doesn’t matter what type of race it is, I would wear myself out if I waited for any muscle pain, burning, lactic threshold burn, etc before I backed off. Meaning that I don’t get the lactic burn or cramping or anything like that anymore. I can go as hard as I feel. Going non-dairy is almost a sure fire way to improve your racing performance. Also, everyone is vegan during a race when you need optimal energy and performance–why not apply that daily while training?

I’m in! Starting Monday, no more dairy for me! I’m actually intolerant too, and I know the facts about dairy, yet I do get seduced by the odd bit of cheese or a splash of milk in my coffee (which I shouldn’t be having anyway). So, let’s do this!

THANK YOU! People always look at me like I’m strange when I point out that cow’s milk is for baby COWS! It’s not that we don’t use it, but we definitely don’t push it on our kids. And, we don’t feel guilty if we don’t use it! And, anyway, I don’t like it. My youngest doesn’t like it. My middler likes it, but we limit him to one small cup a day. My oldest likes it, but can’t drink it. My husband doesn’t hate or love it, but doesn’t really drink it.

By the way (in reference to one of the comments), there are some non-dairy sources that warn against soy milk, so I don’t believe that it is totally safe. Besides, I definitely feel different (hormonally speaking) when I consume it versus when I don’t. Plus, I only like the chocolate version and that gives me headaches, so no more soy milk for me!

I want to try to go “dairy free”, but the truth is I’m afraid I’ll fail. I know that sounds silly, but I just love cheese & icecream so much…and just the thought of not being able to drink “chocolate milk” makes me sad….not that I consume it often.
BUT, I’m allergic to soy & nuts, so I can’t have almond or soy milk….I could try rice milk, but its just not the same.
what caused you to take the plunge?

I’ve been a vegan about about 4 months now, and I feel so much better & more energetic! No more achiness and tiredness, I feel 10 years younger.
I also don’t have any craving for milk, cheese or eggs, but big cravings for vegetables.

This is a great entry, except for two fatal flaws.
1.) As others have pointed out, it mentions soy as an alternative. Soy is heavily GMO, pesticide ridden, responsible for Amazonian deforestation, and is only nutritionally beneficial for women sometimes.
2.) What will very soon turn out to be clearly the best reason to avoid all dairy products is the contribution cows make to global warming due to their farting methane. Methane is, short term, much much more damaging as a greenhouse gas on our atmosphere, and, coupled with the food production and transport needs of the cows and their products, the livestock industry’s days should be brought to an end immediately:http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294

I think it’s funny that some people want to cut out dairy and meat to lose weight, because I am the opposite. I’ve always struggled to gain weight, and I’ve found myself gaining weight as I reduce my animal product consumption.
I also wanted to add that when I eat dairy I get terrible acne breakouts that take weeks of not eating dairy to go away. I also get a stuffy nose which makes it hard to sleep from not breathing through my nose.
As a kid I never liked butter, cheese, milk, or yogurt. I developed a taste for these things in my teen years (except milk, I’ve never drank milk) and now am suffering from it and trying to break out of the cheese addiction. Yogurt gives me an instant sinus infection, but cheese is the one thing I have a hard time avoiding.
I think kids are a lot more in tune with the way food makes them feel, so listen to your kid if they say they don’t like milk or whatever. I was constantly chastised by other kids parents who wanted me to eat yogurt at their house and got mad when I wouldn’t.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but great article. I’ve been just eating goat cheese lately, but I imagine it’s only marginally better than cow cheese.
this is motivating me to cut out all dairy.

I currently make my own Milk Kefir. This is a fermented milk product that has good yeasts and bacteria that is supposed to be good for your GI. It is my impression that the kefir grain fermentation of the milk is changing the milk to a different product that would be good for the GI. Anyone have any further knowledge of milk kefir and it benefits?

i usually have banana and strawberry smoothie for breakfast with milk and want to get off the milk what a great way to substitute the milk. also i usually put fetta cheese on my salads instead of salt… is fetta cheese also bad for you?

Hi I been on a Primal diet for the last 3months. One of the frist thing i gave up on was cereal. Since i don’t milk outside of eating cereal, I just didn’t use it. I try to drink milk last week and the frist thing i notice was the after taste, it tastes so bad. Then the sick feeling came after it, I knew milk can’t be too healthly for you. I have since been drinking almond milk in my Muesli and Nuts breakfast, no added dried fruits.

I went vegan for a month then added eggs and tuna back in. I have difficulty getting enough protein because I cannot eat soy or soy products. Trying to stay at 1500 calories a day and eating only vegan (and no soy) is a challenge. Any tips would be great!

I came across this site as I was researching the benefit of cows milk versus toddler formula as my son is almost 1. Now I’m considering cutting dairy myself, I sometimes feel sick after drinking it & I just want to see how I feel without it. As for dairy causing acne, that’s incorrect as its only our hormones that is responsible for acne. So unless the hormones in dairy mess with our own hormones that’s the only way it could cause acne.

Why are eggs nasty just because they are from a chicken ‘s period? Fruits mature ovaries and we eat those… ewww an ovaryyy.. and vegetables are grown in dirt and animals urinate on them..grosss. Whether it’s a chicken’s period product or a mature ovary or whatever – it’s healthy and natural and is important to your diet. Don’t not eat things because something about them is “gross” – you’ll starve if you do any sort of research. Cow milk is only unhealthy because of what humans have done in order to mass collect/produce, not because it comes from a cow. If you actually look around, there are places you can get unaltered, small farm milk, which is actually rather healthy. Otherwise, get your calcium from oranges (which, gasp, is a mature ovary).

“American women consume 32 times the amount of cows milk as women in New Guinea, but suffer 47 times the number of broken hips”.

Average female life expectancy in US: 80.51 (WHO)
Average female life expectancy in Papua New Guinea: 63.66 (WHO)

Because an average American woman has almost 17 extra years in which to fracture their hips and due to a correlation between age and weakening of bone strength, I would suggest that hip fractures are considerably more closely related to age than dairy consumption, that the argument laid out above is defeasible.

“It’s just weird – Besides humans (and companion animals who are fed by humans), no species drinks milk beyond infancy or drinks the milk of another species.”

I’ve read this argument a lot lately by advocates of a non-dairy/meat diet and I think it is just silly and a false argument and doesn’t support the cause very well. The only reason other species don’t drink the milk of another species is because they aren’t intelligent enough to figure out how to actually do it and that it can even be done. Sorry but my dog is not evolved enough to know how to go grab a bucket and milk the cow out in the field to provide itself with unlimited amounts of milk.

The other problem with the argument is that you could apply it to an infinite number of other things. For example, humans are the only species that go to the bathroom in a heated, enclosed room on a porcelain seat…does that make it weird too or should we just all go back to digging a hole in the woods and using grass and leaves to wipe because animals still do it that way?

Anyway, thanks for the article…I’m trying to eat better and seeking information.

i see mention of not drinking milk in general. No mention of whether you are stating pasteurized/ raw or both. But I can tell you the negative things that are said on this web page are those that line up with pasteurized milk. Raw milk cures diseases and is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Yea, its weird we drink other mammals milk, but its also weird we eat a lot of other things too – don’t get me started. The people that drink raw milk and get sick are the ones that 1. don’t give it long enough and 2. don’t understand that the negative symptoms with raw milk are typically die-off symptoms. I was lactose intolerant until I started forced raw milk down and after the first 4 days of doing that, the headaches, swelling in the throat and stomach cramps/pains went away. I have never felt strong or better in my life. Sure, you can eat/drink other things and avoid dairy/meat, but why? Raw milk is a complete food. You can (and there are people) that live off of a raw milk diet alone. I am not one to to tell anyone what they should do, but for those just writing off dairy, I really do think thats a bad idea. But its your life, do what you please.

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